B-52s' Fred Schneider Hams It Up With Side Project the Superions

Posted on Mar 23rd 2010 3:00PM by Pat Pemberton
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Even though he's had a couple of songs about nude beaches, don't expect to see Fred Schneider walking in the buff any time soon.

"I'm a lot more modest now, with cell phones," he tells Spinner, citing a fear that someone would take a photo of him naked. "If there's an unflattering photo of me, they'll put it on the Internet."

Musically, his first trip to a nude beach came with the B-52s' song 'Theme From a Nude Beach' from the band's 'Cosmic Thing' album. More recently, he revisited the nudist lifestyle with 'Totally Nude Island,' a song with his side project, the Superions, which includes Noah Brodie and Dan Marshall.

"Noah's the producer of the 'Beetlejuice' show at Universal and Dan's a waiter," Schneider says. "They're record nuts. I met them through a friend of mine who co-owns the biggest record store in South Florida. I started staying with them, and one day they had music to 'Totally Nude Island,' and so we put words to it."

At first, the trio recorded on a lark, Schneider says. "I never expected it to go anywhere," he says. "I mean, I even said, 'Oh, don't put this down. No one's going to get it."

As luck would have it, a flying ham would give them a boost a year later. The day before they were set to release "Who Threw That Ham at Me?" -- a disco-influenced song about shoplifting -- Food Network host Paula Deen got hit in the head with a ham while working a charity food drive. The digital release of the Superions song the next day made it seem like the two were connected. Naturally, a YouTube mash-up resulted. "It couldn't have happened at a netter time," Schneider says. "Now they're trying to get me on the show."

In the song, Schneider -- in his trademark half-singing, half-speaking style -- encourages listeners to do a dance called the Disco Garbage Can. "Once you see the video, you're gonna want to do it," says Schneider, who recorded the tune in a bathroom for better acoustics.

The Superions released its self-titled EP in late January and Schneider hopes to put out at least two more Superions albums -- one on Halloween and another on Christmas. There's no word on whether any of his B-52s band mates will make guest appearances.

"I might have Cindy [Wilson] do something I wrote years ago named after her," says Schneider, who has had two solo albums in between stints with the B-52s. "But it's hard because if you ask one person, you wanna ask everyone else."

Even though Schneider is unsure about his bandmates, he does have one guest confirmed for the Halloween album -- Goth queen Elvira.

"If Elvira wasn't going to do it, I was going to ask Melvira," he says, referring to the drag queen performer.

At the very least, we'll say the album should be interesting.